The Sinn Féin leader has said it is “just baffling” that we don’t have an all-island approach to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Mary Lou McDonald has written to the Taoiseach setting out a range of concerns that she believes must be addressed before the lockdown can be relaxed.

In the letter, she welcomes plans for officials to talk with Ministers from the Northern Ireland Executive today – noting that the “last few weeks have shown how critical it is to deal with this crisis on an all-island basis.”

.@MaryLouMcDonald joins us now on the show this morning. Listen Live: https://t.co/vb7HpvKxTZ #pknt pic.twitter.com/Vvcy7RM7B7

— Pat Kenny Newstalk (@PatKennyNT) April 28, 2020

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, she noted that the virus does not respect borders.

“Managing this crisis is not actually a political thing in the first instance – this is biological, this is about public health, it is about keeping people well,” she said.

“Your listeners will recall, in previous times, when there was a real and live threat to the national herd, we adopted a ‘fortress Ireland’ approach.

“It was very clear that when it came to animal health that we have an all-island singular approach.

“Well my god, it is just baffling that we would not have an all-island singular approach in terms of public health.

“The reality is – politics aside – we are a small land mass, we are a small population and for the purposes of managing this crisis and staying ahead of things and flattening the curve and all of that we are a single population.”

She said there may be regional differences in terms of clusters and hotspots; however, she added: “The coronavirus does not give a damn for the border in Ireland.”

"Kite flying"

In her letter to Leo Varadkar, Deputy McDonald said any move to re-open the country requires political consensus across party leaders.

She accused the Government of causing “confusion and anxiety” through commentary that increased expectations that the restrictions would be relaxed.

She told Pat that the Government had left people thinking “May 5th is some kind of red-letter day when we will be liberated from all of these restrictions.”

“That is not true,” she said.

“The truth is that we will live with some level of precaution and restriction unless and until effective antivirals – or better still a vaccine or vaccines – are brought to market by the scientific community.”

Political consensus

She said she is anxious that the Taoiseach does not “go off on some sort of solo run on this” and said any decision should have political consensus.

“The truth is that this has to be a very gradual and very careful process and, to be honest, as we are speaking this morning, the testing capacity is not nearly broad enough or quick enough for us to say with certainty or with comfort that you have the kind of security net that, as and when we unwind things, we can move quickly to identify and taken remedial action if this virus flares up again,” she said.

"Accountability and transparency"

She agreed that all decisions on the outbreak must be informed by scientific and public health advice but noted that ultimately it is politicians who make the final call.

She said it is essential that there is a “pipeline of accountability and also transparency” regarding the political decisions that are taken, noting that any one of the restrictions that are currently in place would have led to a “hue and a cry” under normal circumstances.

“The return for that has to be that the public and citizens are trusted to have the full information and to have the basis and the rational for decisions as they are taken,” she said.

“People are sophisticated enough and smart enough to get that.”

“It means that you keep people with you because we are not out of this yet; not by a long shot, there are months still to go.

“As we exit and unwind, we have to have a political consensus and social consensus and it is imperative that we do that safely.”

You can listen back to the interview in full here: